GBL Rakow Branch Gets LEED Certification
LED lights in the parking lot (Photo by The Elginite).
I just noticed on the Gail Borden web site that the Rakow Branch Library has earned gold LEED certification. The other gold-certified buildings in the area are Judson’s Harm A. Weber building and Waste Management’s Bluff City Transfer Facility. What would be an interesting question, I think, is what was the cost of attaining this certification? Not just the cost of the certificate itself, which from a brief Google search seems to range from $2,000 to $22,000, but the added cost of designing and constructing the building in a way that would allow it to achieve this certification. And what are the benefits of having this certification? These are questions that I’m sure some people will be wondering about. What is the point of it exactly?
In today’s related news, scientists are “baffled” by the fact that global warming has stopped:
“It cannot be denied that this is one of the hottest issues in the scientific community,” says Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. “We don’t really know why this stagnation is taking place at this point.”
Just a few weeks ago, Britain’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research added more fuel to the fire with its latest calculations of global average temperatures. According to the Hadley figures, the world grew warmer by 0.07 degrees Celsius from 1999 to 2008 and not by the 0.2 degrees Celsius assumed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And, say the British experts, when their figure is adjusted for two naturally occurring climate phenomena, El Niño and La Niña, the resulting temperature trend is reduced to 0.0 degrees Celsius — in other words, a standstill.
Maybe the day will come soon when we go back to designing buildings based on aesthetics, usability and economics, rather than whether we can fit in a geothermal heating system or other such nonsense.
By the way, I like the Rakow Branch. I just would have passed on some things done only for environmental reasons and not for other good reasons. I do have to say that the LED lights in the parking lot are attractive and neat-looking–besides being environmentally friendly–but are dangerously dim.
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First would like to say great job to Rakow Branch Library, Judson’s Harm A. Weber building and Waste Management’s Bluff City Transfer Facility for receiving LEED Gold Certification. I would like to address the issue of why we should work toward projects being LEED certification. It has been proven LEED buildings are not only better for the environment but “as the article states” aesthetics, usability and economical. Saving money, having correctly insulated properties seems to be economical and usable to me. I encourage future projects to be LEED certified to better you community then the environment.
Elgin Academy has recently attained LEED Gold Certification as well.